


Glitches

by HalfASlug



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 18:06:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfASlug/pseuds/HalfASlug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Dimension Cannon is ready and the Torchwood team have prepared for every eventuality  - except maybe one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glitches

The tension in the room was almost unbearable and Mickey was beginning to wish he’d had a smaller breakfast.  

After months of research, construction and the bureaucratic hell that was health and safety, Agent Rose Tyler was ready to be blasted through the cracks between universes. It’d had been a huge group effort and everyone was there to see it finally happen. Even the catering people from the canteen that had taken to preparing sandwiches for the overnight team had shown up.

From across the room, Mickey could see the nerves hidden behind Rose’s smile. There had been plenty of tests, but she was to be the first human to make the journey - something that she had insisted on. The process had been difficult. It had taken weeks for the office equipment they’d been sending through with auto-recall systems firmly attached to return in one piece and then the higher ups insisted on testing on small animals before any agent went near it.

The first of which had been a frog to Mickey’s great confusion when he had shown up for work that morning.

“A frog?”

“Yeah,” Rose had replied absently, most of her attention locked on the amphibian in question. “Malcolm apparently spent all night working on this programme, right, that scans a living creature into the Cannon so it knows what it looks like. Remember that stapler that came back all - inside out? It’s supposed to stop that.”

“Okay…” Mickey watched Malcolm Taylor, carefully placing the frog onto the podium the Cannon was aimed at. He appeared to be whispering to it. “But why a frog?”

“It’s Malcolm’s pet. He’s very proud of her.”

The test had been successful and Malcolm’s frog was the heroine of the department. A picture of her had even ended up on the wall.

Despite Rose’s impatience, several other animals jumped before she did, including a hamster (now the beloved pet of Tony Tyler) and Rose the Dog (the beloved pet of Jackie Tyler who wasn’t best pleased when she found out).

“How’s everything looking, Malcolm?” Rose asked, strapping the auto-recall system to her wrist.

“We’re still having some trouble with the comms on some jumps. But I suppose that could be the animals not using them properly…” Malcolm’s voice faded out as he stared over Rose’s shoulder. She waited, fully used to his behaviour by now. “Anyway, there’s only 42% chance of those working and I have tried to reduce the time, but it is still taking an hour to recharge the Cannon to bring you back, I’m afraid.”

“That’s fine,” Rose reassured him. “You’ve done brilliantly.”

Malcolm made a lot of noise that Mickey was sure was supposed to be English but didn’t sound anything at all like it.

Rose took her place on the podium. “Now you sure you’ve loaded my scan into the programme, yeah? Don’t want to end up finding the TARDIS and being shaped like a sheep or something.”

“No, I have quadruple checked, Agent Tyler.”

“Okay, Agent Tyler, are you ready?” asked Agent Campbell, flicking several switches at the main station.

“I guess so,” she breathed out with a smile. It was met with blank stares. “I mean - Yes, Agent.”

Agent Campbell nodded. “Doctor Taylor?”

“Affirmative.”

“Medical response?”

“Yes.”

“Um, sorry,” Rose interrupted from the podium. “Do we really need  - five - no, six medics?”

“Yes,” replied Agent Campbell with a scowl.

“Oh. Just… checking. You really know how to reassure a girl.”

Smiling though his insides felt like they were in a washing machine, Mickey met Rose’s eyes and nodded. She grinned.

It was really happening.

Behind him, the machinery whirred into life and the room filled with static. Around Rose, great balls of light began to surge and crackle. With a final roar, his oldest friend was torn from the universe, leaving no sign that she had ever been there.

Well… no sign except for a small pile of clothes.

“Malcolm?” Mickey called across the vacuum the room had become.

“Yes?”

“When you scanned Rose into the programme yesterday, what clothes was she wearing?”

“Um…”

“Does this mean,” Agent Campbell asked, oddly pale, “that wherever she is, she’s-”

“Yup.” Mickey nodded, recognising the bra on the floor and resisting the urge to laugh. “Well, shit.”

Fifty-five minutes later, Mickey was still in the lab, clock-watching. It had only taken a couple of minutes to establish the comms had failed (something he was secretly glad for) and for him to kick everyone out of the lab. Most had gone without argument apart from Creepy Peter from genetics, whom Agent Campbell had to forcibly drag from the room, and the medical team. They had insisted they were needed, but Mickey only let them on the provision they faced the wall when Rose rematerialised.

A familiar roaring sound proceeded the moment he’d been waiting for. When the sparks had died down, Mickey pounced, throwing a lab jacket over his ex-girlfriend as though it was a fire blanket and she were a small, manageable fire.

Judging by her screech, he half-wished she was.

“Rose! Rose, are you okay?” he asked the covered lump on the floor.

There was a tense moment where Mickey and the medical team waited with baited breath before she replied.

“I’m a bit cold.”

Chuckling with relief, Mickey shooed the medical team out and straightened out the jacket.

“Mickey! I can’t breathe! Hang on-” There was a lot of shuffling in which Mickey saw more skin than he honestly planned to, and then Rose was standing up with her back to him. She struggled with the lab coat a while until she finally slid her arms into it and pulled it around herself.

She turned to face him, her cheeks a spectacular shade of red.

“W-where is everyone?” she asked, smoothing her hair back out of her eyes.

“I, um, sent them out.”

There was an awkward pause in which they both nodded at each other.

“Your clothes are over there,” Mickey blurted out, pointing the jumble on the end of a desk.

“I wasn’t wearing them when Malcolm scanned me.”

“Yeah, we worked that out. Eventually. Malcolm says you need a uniform for jumps. Including lucky pants,” added with a smile.

“I am the lucky pants.”

It took a moment for the words to settle in Mickey’s head. Mixed with the melancholy way they were said, he was suddenly worried. “You sure you’re okay?”

Rose heaved a sigh and started on the buttons of the lab jacket, a difficult task given that it was far too big for her and the arms of it covered her hands. “Fine. I don’t think we’ve got the right universe, though. Everyone had segways.”

“Oh. Where did you end up?” Mickey asked tentatively. “Anywhere busy?”

Rose didn’t look up from the buttons. “Westminster Bridge.”

“Woah.”

“On a Monday. Rush hour.”

Mickey knew it was rude to stare at her with his mouth open, but he’d completely forgotten how his jaw worked.

“About five hundred people saw my tits.”

“At least they’re nice tits, right? Wait -” Mickey frowned. “Am I allowed to say that anymore?”

While he was still trying to think of a way to dig his way out of whole he wasn’t even sure he was in, a slow smile spread across Rose’s face until it lit up the entire room. It only confused him more. She never acted that positively to him complimenting her boobs when they were together.

“Wha-”

The word was barely out of his mouth when Rose cut him off with a shout of laughter and threw her arms around his neck. Out of habit, he wrapped his arms around her as she carried on laughing into his shoulder.

“It works, Micks,” she managed to get out. “Half of central London saw my arse and I had to wear a Union flag anorak and flip flops with bulldogs on them for nearly an hour, but it actually works!”

“You did it, babe.”

Though his heart was swelling with pride and the most extraordinary girl he’d ever met was in his arms, Mickey couldn’t help but think of the tough months ahead of them. Although if anyone could make it, it was Rose Tyler.

“Don’t suppose you’re ready for jokes about this yet, are you?”

“Give it at least an hour, Mickey.”

“Okay, but you gotta prepare yourself for a wicked impression of the Doctor seeing you appear out of nowhere in the buff…”  


End file.
